Photos: The displayed bodies of world leaders

Updated 5:32 PM ET, Fri March 8, 2013

The displayed bodies of world leaders9 photos

The displayed bodies of world leaders – The body of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will be displayed publicly "just like Lenin (and) Mao Zedong," the country's vice president said Thursday on state-run TV. Other world leaders have been on display in their countries, as well.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders9 photos

The displayed bodies of world leaders – Photographed for the first time in 30 years, the embalmed body of Russian leader and Soviet Union founder Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is seen in 1991 in the Mausoleum.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders9 photos

The displayed bodies of world leaders – While she never held a government office, Argentinian politician Eva Peron was largely responsible for the women's suffrage law and formed the Peronista Feminist Party in 1949. Her embalmed body remained on display for two years until it was stolen and secretly buried in Italy for 16 years. Her remains are now in the Duarte family crypt in Recoleta cemetery.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders – The coffin of Soviet political leader Joseph Stalin, who died in 1953, is carried from the House of Trade Unions in Moscow.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders – Vietnamese students line up to view the embalmed body of former president Ho Chi Minh at a mausoleum dedicated to him in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1983.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders – Chinese pass by Mao Zedong's body exhibited to the public on a catafalque.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders – A glass enclosure holds the body of the late Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos in 2005 in Batac, Ilocos norte, Philippines. The late president's widow Imelda Marcos ordered the body of her husband preserved and put on exhibit in a mausoleum.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders9 photos

The displayed bodies of world leaders – Kumsusan Mausoleum is where the embalmed body of Kim Il Sung is kept and shown to the visitors.

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The displayed bodies of world leaders9 photos

The displayed bodies of world leaders – The body of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace.